"When the first Harry Flashman novel was published in paperback," he continues, "I picked it up off the paperback rack at the TG & Y Store in Brownwood, Texas, attracted by the dandy cover. I read a couple of paragraphs and bought the book. Ever since that time, I've been a Flashman fan ... When I read ... about Fraser's passing, my first selfish thought was, 'Now we'll never get the story of how Flashy fought on both sides during the Civil War.' But now I'm just glad that he wrote the books he did and that I was attracted to that cover."

Over at An Spailpín Fánach, it's the "tone" of the books that's judged to be the secret, "and it's a act of high skill on Fraser's part, in book after book, to keep Flashman likable as an antihero despite all the available evidence. Although a coward to his liver himself, Flashman recognises bravery in others and, while they may have been warmongers and racists and worse, the men that flew the Union Jack from Cape Horn to Bombay were no cowards, whatever else they were. Fraser has done his homework on the era, and the books are rich in historical detail about what was a very fascinating time. But most important of all, Fraser's skills as a journalist superbly convey what it might have felt like to exist in that era, when the Empire was at its height, to the extent that you can almost smell the gunpowder and spices as you enter the kashbah, eyes peeled for danger.

"Reading Flashman has been one of the great guilty pleasures in recent years, even for a poblachtánach Gaelach such as An Spailpín Fánach ... and it's a source of sorrow this New Year's morning that when the warhorse's nostrils flare once more at the sound of the bugle, Sir Harry will no longer be there to wonder how in God's name he's going to get out of this one."

Meanwhile at A Very British Dude, Jackart judges Flashman a "great character", but is keen to remember MacDonald Fraser's other work. "It is the semi-autobiographical McAuslan series of novels which had the greatest impact on my life as they inspired me to join the British Army," he says. "Finally, one cannot attempt an obituary without mentioning Quartered Safe Out Here, which remains a required text at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. This book documents how hard the war was for the forgotten army in the East from the point of view of a Private soldier: ordinary men achieved extraordinary things in paddy fields, jungles and hills fighting a fanatical enemy to a standstill, despite lacking the support of the European theatre."

At the Church of Virus, Blunderov laments the loss of the "perennial hope of just one more Flashman adventure. Or could there be a posthumous packet of papers lurking undiscovered somewhere?"

But it is perhaps Donal 'The Gurrier" Murphy who best sums up the early mood: "Goodbye Flashman; you dashing, cowardly, misogynistic, randy old imperialist. I'll miss you."